Huai'an Portrait Stone

The visual materials provided by Chinese ancient tombs accord with the law of artistic creation,not only helping us to recognize the ideas,but also contributing to acknowledge the social life.Upon the view of art history,the tombs,shrines,steles and gate towers of Han Dynasty which decorated with portraits all can be regarded as visual creation which had been programmed and constructed.This paper takes the pictorial stone tombs of Eastern Han in the district of Huai-Si 淮泗 as research object,focusing on the dynamic interaction between the social groups and the burial stone portraits.This essay compiles well-condition stone chamber tomb materials in Huai-Si comprehensively,and pays close attention to general discipline as well as provincial tradition.Drawing methods from the fields of archaeology,architectural history and visual cultural,it discusses certain typical examples in details.Thus,the conclusion is found that the perspective of the living was dominant in the visual creation of burials and the volume of the living had a decisive influence on the establishment of the tomb scale.This essay emphasizes on the interpretation of the process of constructing underground image and architecture,comprehending the visual thinking and experience of designers,builders and viewers.Specifically,burials of Early China explored visuality form surface landscape and underground space.Based on this foundation,the evolution of portrait stone of Han Dynasty in Huai-Si can be summarized into three main stages,namely,cliff tomb 崖洞墓,stone coffin tomb 石椁墓,stone chamber tomb 石室墓.In terms of form and pictorial features,stone chamber tombs and brick chamber tombs in Eastern Han were the most sophisticated tape.The construction reached its peak in second half of 2nd century.The underground portrait chambers which looked like stone shrines changed from closed Yellow Spring home to semi-open eternal "ancestral hall" in the concept ultimately.In terms of choosing structure,material,scale and image arrangement,Han people confined to ritual system.However,they still grasped the freedom to design.The conflict and harmony between the plane and three-dimensional,plain and color,space and artifacts constituted the visual characteristics of the pictorial stone tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Behind the burial image,there were veiled ideas.Besides,this essay systemizes and inquiries the stone portrait in Huai-Si on different aspects,namely,subject,content,resource and skill.In this way it surveys the attitude towards image upon a vast range of time and space,thus clarifying the social status and historical influence of Han Dynasty’s stone portraits.